Thursday, October 14, 2010

The Charlotte Jewish Day School has hit a social media home run, winning $500,000 in Kohl's department store's national Facebook school-improvement contest. Kohl's made the announcement today, confirming that the tiny 111-student school had beaten out more than 100,000 others from around the country in winning its share of a $10 million pot.

Each school had to tell how it would use its winnings, and then get supporters to visit Kohl's Facebook page and vote for their project. The top 20 vote-getters would each get $500,000. Some 11 million votes were cast nationwide, and the Jewish Day School came in No. 11. It plans to use the money to upgrade its technology, buy new computers, upfit a science lab and even buy its first school bus.

The school went all out with its campaign, staging a "Vote-a-Thon" for alumni and friends, making up T-shirts, and getting help from prominent Charlotte social networkers who spread the message to thousands of their contacts on Facebook and Twitter. Principal Mariashi Groner thanked volunteers, saying they worked non-stop during the seven-week campaign. "Sometimes in a smaller school, there's more determination," she said. "We're absolutely thrilled. Euphoric ... It's going to make a big difference to our school."

According to Kohl's Facebook page, the next highest-ranking N.C. school in the contest was Liberty Preparatory Christian Academy in Mooresville, which finished 39th. Here in Charlotte, New Life Christian Academy School of the Arts finished 274th, and Mallard Creek High finished 494th.

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comments:

Anonymous
said...

This is totally insane. What does a private school need with half a million dollars. I'm pretty sure there are plenty of charlotte mecklenburg schools who are desperate for this kind of funding to get things like books and school supplies for underage kids. But no I think these kids at the private school need to get new computers and a bus.

I agree, this is totally insane. It is insane that other schools did not have the drive and determination that this school did to get out there and get the work done in order to be successful in this contest.

Of course there are schools in Mecklenburg County that could benefit more from the funds, however they did not put forth the effort to win the contest. Therefore, the funds are going to the most deserving school.

Kinda drives home the point of just how important that parental involvement is to the success of a child's education, whether it be for math, science, or a contest. No matter how much money you throw at the problem, or how much you want to blame teachers, it's parental involvement that is the most important factor of a child getting the best education he/she can. My child went to a public school, scored a 2160 on the SAT with a 4.7 grade point average and took 10 college credits with her when she went off to NCSU this past fall. This has been her plan since she was 8 years old. We instilled in her the importance of a good education, supported her along the way, and she did the rest. Quit blaming teachers, Mr. Gorman, for what parents fail to do. Congratulations to the local winners. Effort equals success.

It's a little insulting saying that a private school doesn't deserve this. Over 35% of the families at CJDS receive financial aid. Many families make sacrifices so their children will have this wonderful Jewish education. And as you already know...any school could have won this, even PUBLIC schools that have thousands of kids.

Many of you seem to miss the point. With 100,000 schools in the running, a school with just 111 kids (and their parents) were able to get enough community involvement to do what schools of 1,000's of students could not - come together. They earned it. People that spend time complaining about 'have's' and 'have not's' - are mostly 'do-nothings'.

One must pity that poor bigot who chose to use negative stereotypes in their pathetic attempt to discredit this accomplishment. How sad for them that their life is such a failure and the only way they can find their own sense of accomplish is by demeaning the accomplishments of others.

So sad that there is such bigotry and negativity associated with this accomplishment. CJDS exists for those students who cannot get the education they need/want in the public arena. Many of us have no choice but to send our children to private school when the county schools cannot offer services. Trust me, we struggle everyday trying to provide a decent education for our children. We are, by no means, privileged. We are, however, privileged to have helped a wonderful school reach their goal.

By reading some of these posts about "Jews fighting for money" and "Jews on the "selecting panel" If you had read the rules of the contest - it's based on VOTES - as usual, it just shows the ignorance of those who are truly bigots and racists who post meaningless comments here. It was a contest held on Facebook - any school could have applied and worked towards the goal that was achieved here by CJDS and the community that supports them. Be racist all you want - it does not change the fact or belittle the accomplishment that took place here.

It is an accomplishment, I certainly would not argue that point.(BTW, I was the first one to post) However, what I have a problem with is that people are celebrating the accomplishments of people who have the means and education to accomplish somthing like this. Raffling off and I-pad, organizing functions for people to vote at southpark, these are not things that I would expect the parents of underpriviledged children to be able to pull together. Maybe I don't give them enough credit. I guess I should really kind fault with Kohls, this was an incredibly idiotic way to give away half a million dollars. Not because of how they did it, but who it was for. There are schools with so much need out there. If Kohls was going to give charitably they should have been a tad more responsible about how they decided who would get this money. I just don't think private school kids needed this money. I am sorry. If the school needs money, raise tuition. If you can't afford tuition go to a public school. If you think public schools are inferior and don't meet the needs of your child, then maybe your child has special needs.

there is nothing to 'voting'. it is anonymous. it can be repeated. it is not as if the school found that many people, one per vote. a simple macro can be setup up to run over and over and over again, voting time after time after time. that's how they 'won'.

the CJDS came in No. 11, TO SHARE IN THE 10 MILLION DOLLARS OF PRIZE MONEY. they were NOT number one by any stretch. go to the kohl's website and see the top 10 and their prizes. this is just an article about a school in charlotte nc.

What a bunch of ridiculous comments - they entered a contest held by Kohl's - anyone could have entered, they organized, they got the votes - followed the rules - they came in 11th - that's it...they are a private school - so what - does that violate any rules? if it was a Christian school or a CharMeck school, no one would have bothered with their racist comments or hillbilly logic. Again, it does not diminish or take away from the fact that THEY WON - and followed the rules - Only in Charlotte would these types of comments be made in such an idiotic manner.

The fact that they set up at South Park and used tactics like the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts to sell cookies and popcorn must be a "Jewish" thing too.

Charlotte Latin, Charlotte Chrisian, Charlotte Catholic were eligible as well. It only goes to show that rich jews would have to do this for fund raising. No anti semitism here.

If the people posting had followed the contest, it went on for 7 weeks. Each Facebook account was allowed 5 votes. If a macro had been set up, there would have been some note in the media about the millions of new accounts opened all of a sudden. The 500K votes they got were at least 100k individuals voting for them.